By Antony Sguazzin
(Bloomberg) – Transnet SOC, South Africa’s ports and rail company, on Thursday launched a train with a world-record number of wagons in a bid to move heavy trucks carrying metal ore off the nation’s roads, where they are causing damage and congestion.
The train, which had 375 wagons and was more than 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) long, carried 23,625 metric tons of manganese ore, Transnet said in a statement. The route it traveled is 861 kilometers from Sishen in South Africa’s Northern Cape province to the west coast port of Saldanha.
South Africa competes with Australia for the length of its freight trains. In Australia the trains transport iron ore mined by companies including Rio Tinto to ports.
“This is another breakthrough for the heavy-haul railway industry,” Transnet Freight Rail’s general manager, Brian Monakali, said. “Rio Tinto Australia recently started with the implementation of driver-less trains in their iron ore railway system. Transnet has now successfully operationalised the 375-wagon train.”
Manganese is used in steelmaking. South Africa has the world’s biggest deposits of the ore.
